Over the past few days, there has been rampant speculation that welterweight contender Diego Chaves was going to pull out of his fight with former titleholder Timothy Bradley Jr. because he was unhappy with his deal for the bout that will headline an HBO tripleheader at The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas.
The speculation stemmed from media reports in Argentina, Chaves’ home country. But, according to Top Rank promoter Bob Arum and Top Rank vice president Carl Moretti, who was tasked with getting to the bottom of the issues, everything was worked out on Monday and the fight most definitely is on.
“I read those articles, as well, and this involved a minor dispute between his Argentine promoter [Osvaldo Rivero] and Chaves as to how they would whack up the money Top Rank was providing under the provision of services agreement we did with Rivero,” Arum told ESPN.com. “All of that was resolved [on Monday afternoon], and the fight is definitely on without a problem.”
When Top Rank and Rivero negotiated the agreement, Rivero signed a contract with Top Rank to deliver Chaves’ services. That is standard operating procedure in boxing.
According to Arum and Moretti, Chaves was not satisfied with his cut of the money and, apparently, threatened to pull out.
“Now he is satisfied, and he signed a contract himself today with Rivero for the fight, and Rivero is going to send it to Moretti [on Monday night],” Arum said. “It was all handled well by Moretti. He was concerned, obviously, and he was back and forth on the phone with them all day, and everything is finished now. Everything is good. And this time we don’t have a visa problem with Chaves.”
Before Chaves boxed Brandon Rios on Top Rank’s Aug. 2 HBO card at The Cosmopolitan, it was touch-and-go as to whether he would be able to get into the United States in time for the bout. A computer problem was holding up thousands of visas and preventing travelers from coming to the United States. However, Nevada Sen. Harry Reid’s office intervened and helped Chaves get his visa processed in time for him to get to Las Vegas two days before the fight, which he lost by ninth-round disqualification.